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Rachel Sennott joins the online meeting and immediately begins an apology. “Apologies for the delay!” she exclaims, seeming really regretful. Although she's only slightly delayed, she needs to explain. “I tend to talk too much during calls. “Earlier calls made me late—I just can’t stop chatting!” Thankfully, during an interview, that’s precisely what you want to encounter. Moreover, it’s fairly expected. Viewers who know her fearlessly queer and brash film Bottoms—that she collaborated on with the director and starred in with collaborator Ayo Edebiri—can already know that she possesses a lot to say, ranging from on identity, sex, or the appeal of creating a high-school combat group. Plus, once you finish her new eight-part show I Love LA, it becomes obvious that the star holds additional insights about the challenges of modern youth (Now in her thirties, Sennott represents a bridge to younger audiences, straddling eras skilled for bridging different age groups).

Guiding Lights and Artistic Direction

Parallels to Lena Dunham’s Girls can’t be avoided and the actress is a fan, naming the show alongside Sex and the City, the acclaimed comedy and Donald Glover’s series as inspirations for her series, which tracks the struggles of a social media star played by Odessa A’Zion and her friend and aspiring talent manager portrayed by Sennott. Notably, the most significant influence on creative vision was reserved for the popular sitcom, that program depicting an up-and-coming Hollywood star making his way in an often-seedy LA scene (choice quote: “only the unsuccessful find joy here”). Sennott started watching it amid COVID-19, became “captivated”, and decided to put her own twist on it “with female and queer audiences in mind”.

“I wanted to make a show where the internet, not Hollywood, was the industry, because my career started online,” she explains. The inspiration for this project originated—in part—from her own, initially rocky, move to Tinseltown and from her astrological phase, a frequently discussed phenomenon for enthusiasts. That period marked an era that saw her understand significant truths, work-wise and individually. “My twenties began with constant public emotional outbursts and disorganization,” she recalls. “In my mid-20s, I moved to LA and got settled. And then I felt like everything started to just fall apart. “The struggles felt almost mythic in scale…”

Starting Out

Raised in Connecticut, Sennott began developing and showcasing comedy while enrolled in acting at a prestigious arts school. “I went through all the proper channels to try to perform, and they weren’t gelling,” she states. “I tried out for all the NYU comedy groups, and got rejected from all of them. “Theatre productions at school also didn’t accept me. “It left me questioning my purpose and place.”

She seized control, performing at open mics with Edebiri and posting uproarious (and very) weird comedy videos on the internet. A particular video, Baby Cult, followed several females fetishistically drawn to motherhood; a different one envisioned being employed at the brand Hollister as similar to being trapped in a horror film. Interestingly, she connected with Seligman through campus film circles and eventually appearing in her initial project, Shiva Baby, an anxious dramedy set at a religious event with echoes of the Safdie brothers’ movie. A recurring idea of her path, she says, has been contemporaries supporting her, as opposed to established gatekeepers. So the old guard wasn’t helpful? “Definitely not them”, she confirms, stating with a laugh: “Our victory isn’t their goal.”

Career Breakthrough

Anyone who were skeptical about her then will certainly be regretting it currently. As part of she labels a “astonishingly complete” turn of events, she has manifested her dream vehicle. A few years back she shared a video titled on LA life online, in which she mocked movie previews (“I’m addicted to drugs – we all are”). Now, she’s the co-showrunner (with the co-writer) of a series about city dwellers managing benefits of online celebrity (such as partying at a famous actor’s house) with drawbacks (your client being suspected of being a substance-abusing stealer, and possibly becoming a risky persona non grata). Some could simple to produce a program about online fame that was extremely glamorous—or, more problematic, one that belittled at the characters. This show does neither, resulting in a portrait of affluent millennial existence that’s candid about the chaos and the appeal.

Nuanced Portrayal

“Numerous series present younger generations and digital culture in a derogatory manner,” she comments. “I think that young people have been through a lot – I’m mostly thinking of people younger than me, like my little sister, who went to college during Covid, so she had to come home, or my other sister who was doing school online.”|“The younger generation has faced significant